AUSTIN, Texas, July 29 -- The University of Texas at Austin issued the following news release:
Researchers at The University of Texas at Austin have developed a sensor that clips onto live power lines and catches hidden threats to the grid, such as tree limbs brushing wires, before they spark outages or wildfires.
The sensor alerts utility employees to a potential threat, enabling an immediate response.
Without an intelligent power line sensor, the utility would be alerted to a tree-brushing event only if workers happened to discover it by luck or if someone reported visible smoke.
For more than five years, researchers at UT's Center for Electromechanics (CEM) have been working on this project, combining edge computing, telecommunicatio...